Responding to the tremendous international pressure, Malaysia and Indonesia finally on Wednesday agreed to offer humanitarian assistance and temporary shelter to the 7,000 migrants, including Bangladeshis, stranded at the sea and said they will not turn away migrant vessels. The countries also termed the recent crisis over the influx of irregular migrants through sea international, not regional one, and urged the international community to come up with necessary help to resolve it within a year, according to international and Malaysian media. The announcement came in a joint statement read by Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman after a meeting with his counterparts from Indonesia, Retno Marsudi and Thailand, General Tanasak Patimapragor. The meeting was held in Malaysia to address the plight of the irregular migrants. Anifah said the two countries agreed to provide the temporary shelter provided that the resettlement and repatriation process would be done in one year by the international community, says a report of Malaysian national news agency BERNAMA. “In the meantime, Malaysia and Indonesia invite other countries in the region to join in this endeavour,” he said at the media conference together with his Indonesian counterpart Retno after the meeting. Thai foreign minister Tanasak Patimapragor did not attend the press conference to attend to urgent matters in his country. Anifah said Thailand could not give their commitment in providing temporary shelters to the migrants as they needed to iron out its domestic law issues under the present circumstances, but they but would provide humanitarian assistance. Thailand has previously said it cannot afford to take any more migrants since it is already overburdened by tens of thousands of refugees from Myanmar. “However, Malaysia and Indonesia cannot wait any longer, because our priority is to save them and cannot leave them in the sea. We’ve to reach out to them, and as for now, we’ve been sending supplies to them,” he said. Anifah said Malaysian intelligent estimates put the number of people stranded at sea at around 7,000 people. ”The offer of shelter was applicable only to those people now on the seas.” However, it is not clear how the three governments reached the figure of 7,000 refugees. The UN refugee agency believes there are some 4,000 at sea although some activists had initially put the number at 6,000. The Malaysian Foreign Minister also said they will put an immediate stop to the towing away of vessels ferrying migrants trying to enter its waters. “We’ve agreed to offer them temporary shelter, the towing away will stop immediately,” he told the media conference. According to the joint statement, these migrants would be sheltered in a designated area to be agreed upon by the affected countries and administered by a joint task force to be established by the affected countries. The ministers in the joint statement had proposed that the international community would be responsible in providing Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand with the necessary support, particularly financial assistance to enable them to provide temporary shelter and humanitarian assistance to the irregular migrants currently at risk. Anifah avoided answering questions on whether the refugees would be accepted even if the international community did not cooperate, but to another question said they would be given shelter “immediately.” The statement said the three nations called upon the community to uphold their responsibility and urgently share the burden of providing the necessary support to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand in addressing the problem. The joint statement said the root causes and other contributory factors to the recent influx of irregular migrants should be immediately identified and addressed by the parties concerned. “In this regard, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand remain prepared to continue to assist and work, in a constructive manner with the parties concerned,” it said. The statement said Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand would continue to uphold their responsibilities and obligations under international law and in accordance with their respective domestic laws, including the provision of humanitarian assistance to the irregular migrants. The ministers also strongly condemned people smuggling and human trafficking and expressed their governments’ determination to continue to take the necessary action, individually and collectively, to bring perpetrators of such heinous crimes to justice. The statement said the law enforcement agencies of the countries concerned would continue to share intelligence information in their efforts to combat people smuggling and human trafficking. On Asean’s role, the statement called on the 10-member bloc to play an active role in addressing the issue in an effective and timely manner, in the spirit of Asean solidarity. The ministers further recommended the convening of an emergency meeting by the Asean Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime to address the crisis at hand. Meanwhile, another 433 people were rescued early Wednesday off Indonesia, with local fisherman who saved them saying many were in appalling shape from their ordeal at sea and that passengers reported some of their fellow migrants had died of starvation. While the three ministers were meeting, a flotilla of Indonesian fishermen rescued the migrants who were stranded at sea for weeks and brought them to safety. More than 3,000 ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshis have already landed in the three countries in recent weeks, although some boats have been turned away. Most of the migrants are believed to be victims of human traffickers, who recruit them in Myanmar’s Sittwe province and in Bangladesh with promises to give them safe passage to Malaysia, and jobs once they land there. In another breakthrough in migrant crisis, Myanmar authorities on Wednesday said they are “ready to provide humanitarian assistance” to boatpeople, in its most conciliatory comments yet as several Southeast Asian neighbours meet to discuss the migrant crisis gripping the region. A foreign ministry statement in the state media said Myanmar “shares concerns” of the international community and is “ready to provide humanitarian assistance to anyone who suffered in the sea”. –Dhaka, May 20 (UNB)
